A Call On Young-Adult Africans

Despite its magnificent history and the enormous wealth that nature bestowed on it, myriads of political, social and economic problems have continued to plague the African continent for a long time. It is a worrying situation that continues to challenge the leaderships of most African countries. People have kept asking questions. How did Africa come to this seemingly irredeemable stage? And given the massive wealth that the continent boasts of, how can African leaders re-define their roles in order to facilitate the continent’s self-actualisation in the face of threats posed by terrorism and global uncertainty?

In his recently published book titled “Economies and Industries: Insight into Africa’s Economic Potentials” Maximum Fredrick examines some of Africa’s core assets and discusses how African leaders can better utilize these and new business policies to make Africans a more fulfilled people.

The book emphasises that at a time like this, existing government policies are particularly creating difficult business environments for up-coming African entrepreneurs. It is, therefore, with well-defined and favourable government policies that African leaders can help make the best use of the continent’s youthful population.

What African leaders actually need to succeed are men and women who would adapt more flexibly to the philosophy of new business initiatives that can create jobs for the majority of their citizens. But where would such men and women be found? This, in essence, was the question that motivated Mr. Fredrick to write his eye-opening book.

In an interview with our columnist, Emeka Asinugo, Mr. Fredrick said that when he wrote the book, he had sought to communicate with young Africans who were unaware of the opportunities available to them and the roles they could play to build a better future for the continent.

“We have heard it said on several occasions and indeed many Africans believe that young-adult Africans of today would eventually become the leaders of tomorrow”, he said. “The sad reality, however, is that many young- adults are still ill-prepared to take on any meaningful future roles that would be needed to shape or reshape the destiny of their continent.” That also was the challenge of African leaderships.

As a young technology entrepreneur, Mr. Fredrick said he was inspired by his peers to become concerned with Africa’s growing technology demand. His passion was consummated when he launched SperaDeal Global Nigeria Limited in April 2019. His vision was to work with other youthful Africans to build what could possibly become one of the largest technology companies on the continent.

Dr. Donald Igwegbu, a chartered engineer with the UK engineering council and Professor Kingsley Moghalu who was the Presidential candidate for the Young Progressives party in Nigeria in 2019 shared in that vision with him and became shareholders in the company.

Professor Akii Ibhadode, a distinguished professor of manufacturing engineering and Vice Chancellor of Nigeria’s University of Petroleum Resources joined the team months later as a shareholder before Professor Kingsley Moghalu withdrew from the company for personal reasons.

Currently, SperaDeal is into contract procurement, manufacturing, production, sales, installation and maintenance of security products like CCTV cameras, surveillance systems, tracking devices and is still expanding.

Mr Fredrick said he believed in new business philosophies. He believed in doing things differently. He believed that on their own Africans should manufacture technological products to meet their local needs. And to that end, his organisation would be hosting entrepreneurship round-table conferences in many locations across Africa, drawing executives of established companies to the round table for conversation and working out possible partnerships.

Mr. Fredrick explained that African leaders needed to encourage more young-adults across the African continent who have shown special entrepreneurial abilities to stand up and be counted. African leaders needed to do more to encourage Made-in-Africa products so that talented young-adults could manufacture Africa’s technological needs locally rather than rely on the importation of foreign goods. African leaders needed to help get African products into the local market. Africans as a people needed to embark on a campaign tagged “Africa Also Manufactures! Buy Made-in- Africa!!”

The young writer said he believed entrepreneurship was a journey of faith. Those who lacked faith never travelled the path. And when they did, they fell out of business all too sudden. The book is a clarion call on African young-adults to stand up and be counted.

“Economies and Industries: Insight into Africa’s Economic Potentials” is on sale at Amazon.

By Emeka Asinugo, KSC